First important account of multiple sclerosis. Carswell (No. 2291) and Cruveilhier (No. 2286) both gave illustrations of the disease; the latter is also accredited with the first description.

Frerichs divided the progression of renal disease into three stages: initial hyperemia, fatty infiltration and exudation, and organization leading to fibrosis and atrophy. This is one of the earliest works on kidney disease to incorporate histological appearances. However, Frerichs did not recognize the primary involvement of the glomerulus in what later became known as glomerulonephritis. See No. 4212.

Discovery of leucine and tyrosine in the urine.

Frerichs’s classic monograph on diseases of the liver summarized the existing knowledge and included his own important work on the subject. He discovered leucine and tyrosine in the liver in acute yellow atrophy (Dtsch. Klin., 1855, 7, 341-43), a condition to which he devoted much study. Frerichs was Professor of Pathology at Berlin and enjoyed a great reputation; more than any other man he was responsible for the development of scientific teaching in Germany. English translation, London, 1860.

Pp. 62-64: First description of progressive familial hepatolenticular degeneration (“Kinnier Wilson’s disease”; see No. 4717).